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January 8th, 2008
After hitting up Europe this Summer I have got the traveling bug.
I’ve been bumming around Southern California for a few months and its time to explore a little more of the world. Unfortunately, now that I have a job, I don’t have the luxury of lots of time off. However, I do have a little more in the way of financial resources. That being said I will be doing some domestic travel this year, mostly on extended weekends.
My first destination this year will be the Northern Midwest, specifically Detroit, and Chicago with a small venture into south central Canada (just to say I’ve been). My friend Denice is currently attending the University of Michigan, and my friend Malu and I will be visiting her and traveling around the area.
We will fly into Chicago on February 15th, spend a day in Chicago before driving to Ann Arbor. We will take a day to drive over to Canada, then spend a day in Detroit before flying back to LA.
It will be a short trip, but I look forward to seeing a bit of the US I have never been to before.
Brad |
Planning, US |
August 6th, 2007
To be honest, Rome was a bit disappointing. The whole time we were there, Simon and I kept looking for a part of Rome that resembled what we had pictured Rome would look like. Don’t ask me what this picture of imaginary Rome looks like, or where I got the idea, but the closest we found was the piazza in front of the vatican.
For the most part, Rome looked pretty much like any other city, except with a few more churches. Parts were mediocre and parts were quite beautiful, particularly the area south east of the Tiber river.
Another site I feel was overrated was the vatican museum, including the cistine chapel. It was understandably very crowded, and the chapel was at the end of the museum, so all the people who only wanted to see the chapel had to walk through the entire museum amongst those of us who wanted to enjoy some of the less hyped and more interesting art.
St. Peters Basilica was also a little overrated. It was definitely beautiful, and quite huge, but I don’t think it was any better than the cathedral we saw up on the hill in Cobh, Ireland. One good thing was the lack of entrance fee for the basilica, although there was a fee to go to the top of the dome.
The Colosseum was cool to see in person, but it was also a little disappointing. It looked like they were in the process of doing some restoration to it, in fact they had replaced whole sections which had fallen down. It’s clear to see what is ruin, and what is new. It is kind of cool because then you can see the ruins, but at the same time with the restoration you can see what it might have looked like back in its time. The entrance fee for the colosseum was quite steep, but luckily Simon and I were able to get in for the EU youth price by using our Irish residency cards.
So Rome is above Brussels on my list of places I visited but not higher than anything else.
Brad |
Europe, Italy |
August 6th, 2007
Perhaps the biggest and best surprise so far on my trip has been Switzerland. Added to the itinerary as an afterthought and even then only as a stop between Rome and Amsterdam, Switzerland is the most beautiful country I’ve visited.
We arrived first in Bern, because that is where we had booked a hostel. I wanted to go to Geneva but there weren’t any hostels available so we decided to sleep in Bern and take a train to Geneva for the day.
To our surprise Bern, which is the capital of Switzerland, was pretty much dead. We took the train to Geneva and again found most of the stores closed though there were more people walking around. We asked around, and it turned out to be Switzerland’s National Day.
Geneva was a beautiful city. It was so clean and green, with great views of Lake Geneva and the river. It was such a sharp contrast to Rome which had no trees or grass hardly anywhere. We explored the city, saw the palace of nations, even though it was closed, and played a game of giant chess in the park.
Around 7pm we took the train back, and we amazed by the beautiful swiss countryside. When we returned to Bern, the National Day celebration had just begun. We checked into our hostel, grabbed some food and a case of beer, and watched the fireworks and engaged in the festivities.
The next morning we found it was raining, so instead of walking around all day in the rain, we decided to take the scenic train ride through Switzerland which took about 4 or 5 hours. It was amazing, I only wish we had time to stop and visit some of the little towns along the way.
Simon and I both agree we should have spent more time in Switzerland, but that we will be back someday.
Brad |
Europe, Switzerland |
July 27th, 2007
As I write this, I am sitting on the steps of Santa Lucia train station in front of the Grand Canal. The sun has set, but there is still a bit of light in the sky. People, mainly tourists, are lined up along the canal sitting on the sidewalk with their feet in the water. Water busses and tour boats hum by, but no Gondolas, those dominate the less busy, more romantic parts of Venice.
Venice is an amazing place. It’s unique canal system and beautiful old buildings make it a destination I would encourage everyone to visit once in their lives.
That being said, Venice is not a backpackers paradise. The entire city is effectively dominated by tourism. However, unlike most of the other locations I have visited in my travels, I have seen very few backpackers. Either as a result, or as the cause of the lack of backpackers, there were no hostels in Venice. We were able to book a bed and breakfast that was clearly the few backpackers choice for accommodation, and it very closely mimicked a hostel with cheap rooms and few amenities, but they still “served†breakfast.
Most visitors to the Venice are families or couples, arriving by tour bus or cruise ship. The number one activity in Venice is shopping. From what I can tell, it’s a wonderful place to shop. You can get lost shopping in the maze of old streets, have a nice meal, and take an €80 gondola rideback to where your board your tour bus or ocean liner.
Venice is also a city of love. Couples can be seen all over holding hands in the street, sharing a romantic gondola ride, or making out along to canals. I was even surprised to see older, more usually restrained couples having trouble keeping their hands off of each other.
Despite all the couple-y love and spending money in the air, neither of which Simon and I were lucky enough to be abundant with, we enjoyed our day and a half in Venice. Our missed train in Budapest on Monday turned out to be a blessing in disguise as another day in Venice would have been expensive or boring, possible both.
To conclude, everyone should at some point in their life grab their wallet and their significant other and take a cruise to Venice, Italy.
Brad |
Italy |
July 27th, 2007
Before going to Budapest, Brianne Crabtree told me it was “like prague 15 years ago.†Of course she meant in tourist popularity, but the phrase stuck with me, and as a result, I was constantly comparing Budapest to Prague.
Budapest was much less tourist infested than Prague. In fact, Simon and I were hard pressed to find any tourists at all. This was most likely due to the lack of tourist traps in Budapest. Budapest is a beautiful city with many excellent restaurants and cafes, much like prague, but it lacks the big ticket sites the prague has which draw so many tourist into one place. Budapest did have a few cathedrals and a castle or two, but going there for me was never about the sites, but about seeing what people where like and how they lived.
A new experience that was part of Budapestian life that we decided to try was a Turkish bath. There are about 9 of them throughout the city and we decided to visit the most popular one. The Turkish bath was pretty much a fancy public swimming pool, except that there was a hot pool, an indoor cold pool, and an outdoor wave pool (with artificial waves). Suprisingly, even on a hot day the hot pool felt good, and made the following trip into the cold pool that much more refreshing.
Another new experience was using the bathing suit I had purchased in Vienna (more on that later), which was lets say smaller and tighter than most men’s bathing suits in America. I didn’t get a chance to wear it in Vienna, so the Turkish bath in Budapest was my first opportunity. It was surprisingly comfortably, although I did feel a bit self-consious while wearing it, partly because my legs were very very white (having never seen the light of day) and partly because they are equally hairy. Luckily, such small bathing suits are not surprising to most europeans, and I didn’t get too many funny looks. It was not a bad experience, but I think I will be sticking to trunks when I get back home.
So Budapest was not too eventful, other than we missed out train on Monday due to me reading the wrong time on the ticket and had to buy a new ticket for Tuesday.
Brad |
Hungary |